WOMEN IN THE ANC AND SWAPO - DISA

14 SEARCHLIGHT SOUTH AFRICA, VOL 3, NO 3, OCTOBER 1993
I helped Jimmy pack his clothes under the watchful eye of Sizwe Mkhonto,
then the regional Imbokodo commander. The brutal action of Manci and
Mabizela was to rub-off [ie, rub out] Imbokodo's sex scandal. Sidwell was
one of the Imbokodo members accused by the girls. The three men who had
been expelled were handed over to the office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in Dar es Salaam. Professor developed a mental
disorder and got very sick. I and other ANC members tried to locate him in
Dar, but all in vain. We later learned that he died pathetically somewhere in
Dar es Salaam. Manci must account.
The girls' documents were forcefully taken from me by Tim Maseko and
I was kept under more and stronger surveillance, which had prevailed since
1978. 3 1 later resigned from being chief of logistics as relations between me,
Jackie Morake [coordinator at Dakawa] and Manci continued deteriorating.
Some sympathetic comrades always warned me to be careful with critical
politics...
Further Evidence of Abuse
Editors: In his statement, Mngqibisa goes on to describe his work as a
plumber in Dakawa, leading to his arrest and imprisonment in the prison at
Ruth First Centre in January 1991. This and his escape the following
February are described in SSA No 7. Mngqibisa read this passage from SSA
No 7 into his evidence before the commission.
He states that the prison at Ruth First Centre at Dakawa was constructed
out of the girls' dormitories, on the instruction of the Umkhonto commander,
Joe Modise. From many years' acquaintance at first hand, he
describes Modise as the 'architect' of the ANC prison system.
Mngqibisa made a serious allegation against another important official in
exile: Andrew Masondo, former national commissar of the ANC, who was
later director of the ANC school, Somafco, from 1985-89. As director of
Somafco, Masondo was responsible for the education and the welfare of
teenage refugees from South Africa during the latter period of the 1984-86
townships revolt, when education for black children came to a halt inside the
country on the basis of the slogan: 'Liberation before education'. Hundreds
of young people left the country to join the ANC, many hoping for scholarships
to study. Donor agencies responsible to the governments of Sweden,
Denmark, Finland, Germany and other countries funded Somafco, which
was the subject of idyllic propaganda in the left and liberal press internationally.
Unesco paid the salaries of its teachers. Yet Masondo and the ANC
were totally unaccountable. Mngqibisa's statement in evidence continues:
Sexual abuse: Andrew Masondo impregnated a young Somafco
schoolgirl in 1989 and she had to abandon her studies. Masondo
seriously abused human rights in the ANC. A majority of ANC girls
who studied abroad used tneir bodies to get scholarships.
This statement confirms a remark in a history of the ANC in exile in
Searchlight South Africa No 5 by Bandile Ketelo and four colleagues. In their
account, they state that Masondo was 'involved in abuse of his position to